The Use of Geographic Information Systems for Resource Evaluation: A New Zealand Example

Over the last decade, New Zealand has implemented innovative reforms in respect of natural resource and environmental management. These include the Resource ManagementAct 1991 (RMA), a notable feature of which is the adoption of 'sustainable management' as the key principle guiding resource allocation and use. This and other features of the new administrative context for resource management strongly suggest a prominent role for geographicinformation systems (GIS) and related spatial information technology. In this paper we present an outline of the Regional Resource Evaluation Project (RREP), a project that has been established to explore and demonstrate the capabilities of GIS and related spatial information technology in the context of resource analysis and decision making. To date, the RREP has achieved important outcomes in terms of database design and development. An extensive information base which incorporates data on the physical and natural environment, patterns of human activity, and on social and demographic characteristics has been assembled. We describe the information systems, as well as some of the technical issues that attend to database design and development.We also provide brief reviews of two applications of the GIS to resource evaluation. One relates to the evaluation of changes in regional land use, with a focus on natural habitats. The other is concerned with land suitability assessment for plantation forestry.     

Recommended metric for tracking visibility progress in the Regional Haze Rule

For many national parks and wilderness areas with special air quality protections (Class I areas) in the western United States (U.S.), wildfire smoke and dust events can have a large impact on visibility. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 1999 Regional Haze Rule used the 20% haziest days to track visibility changes over time even if they are dominated by smoke or dust. Visibility on the 20% haziest days has remained constant or degraded over the last 16 yr at some Class I areas despite widespread emission reductions from anthropogenic sources. To better track visibility changes specifically associated with anthropogenic pollution sources rather than natural sources, the EPA has revised the Regional Haze Rule to track visibility on the 20% most anthropogenically impaired (hereafter, most impaired) days rather than the haziest days. To support the implementation of this revised requirement, the EPA has proposed (but not finalized) a recommended metric for characterizing the anthropogenic and natural portions of the daily extinction budget at each site. This metric selects the 20% most impaired days based on these portions using a “delta deciview” approach to quantify the deciview scale impact of anthropogenic light extinction. Using this metric, sulfate and nitrate make up the majority of the anthropogenic extinction in 2015 on these days, with natural extinction largely made up of organic carbon mass in the eastern U.S. and a combination of organic carbon mass, dust components, and sea salt in the western U.S. For sites in the western U.S., the seasonality of days selected as the 20% most impaired is different than the seasonality of the 20% haziest days, with many more winter and spring days selected. Applying this new metric to the 2000–2015 period across sites representing Class I areas results in substantial changes in the calculated visibility trend for the northern Rockies and southwest U.S., but little change for the eastern U.S.

Implications: Changing the approach for tracking visibility in the Regional Haze Rule allows the EPA, states, and the public to track visibility on days when reductions in anthropogenic emissions have the greatest potential to improve the view. The calculations involved with the recommended metric can be incorporated into the routine IMPROVE (Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments) data processing, enabling rapid analysis of current and future visibility trends. Natural visibility conditions are important in the calculations for the recommended metric, necessitating the need for additional analysis and potential refinement of their values.     

Adaptive management in the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System: science-management partnerships for conservation delivery

Adaptive management is an approach to recurrent decision making in which uncertainty about the decision is reduced over time through comparison of outcomes predicted by competing models against observed values of those outcomes. The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a large land management program charged with making natural resource management decisions, which often are made under considerable uncertainty, severe operational constraints, and conditions that limit ability to precisely carry out actions as intended. The NWRS presents outstanding opportunities for the application of adaptive management, but also difficult challenges. We describe two cooperative programs between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey to implement adaptive management at scales ranging from small, single refuge applications to large, multi-refuge, multi-region projects. Our experience to date suggests three important attributes common to successful implementation: a vigorous multi-partner collaboration, practical and informative decision framework components, and a sustained commitment to the process. Administrators in both agencies should consider these attributes when developing programs to promote the use and acceptance of adaptive management in the NWRS.     

River therapy

Environmental Chemistry Letters -     

Matrix-immobilized organoclay for the sorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pentachlorophenol from groundwater

Sorbent materials consisting of organoclay immobilized onto the surface of a solid support were evaluated for use in pentachlorophenol (PCP) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) remediation of groundwater at a creosote-contaminated Superfund site. Cetylpyridinium-exchanged low pH montmorillonite clay (CP-LPHM) was bonded to either sand (CP-LPHM/sand) or granular activated carbon (GAC) (CP-LPHM/GAC) using the free acid form of carboxymethylcellulose as an adhesive. Effluent from an oil-water separator was eluted through equal bed volumes of composite (4 g 3:2 CP-LPHM/GAC or 13 g CP-LPHM/sand), affinity-extracted, and quantitatively analyzed by GC/MS. PCP, naphthalene, fluorene, phenanthrene, pyrene, and total PAHs were initially reduced by both CP-LPHM/GAC (> or =99%, 61%, 99%, > or =99%, 97%, and 94%, respectively) and CP-LPHM/sand (90%, 70%, 94%, 95%, 93%, and 86%, respectively). Complete breakthrough of naphthalene occurred after approximately 15 h of elution through 3:2 CP-LPHM/GAC and 22 h through CP-LPHM/sand. PCP showed complete breakthrough following 18 h of elution through 3:2 CP-LPHM/GAC and 26 h through CP-LPHM/sand. However, 50% breakthrough was not attained for higher molecular weight PAHs, as fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo[a]anthracene, and chrysene continued to be greatly reduced with both 3:2 CP-LPHM/GAC (98%, 95%, 94%, and 95%, respectively) and CP-LPHM/sand (75%, 73%, 76%, and 78%, respectively) after 48 h of continuous elution. Results confirm prior studies, indicating that these organoclay-containing composites have a high capacity for contaminants found in wood preserving waste. Further, results suggest that the inclusion of CP-LPHM may be useful as part of an effective strategy for groundwater remediation of high concentrations of PCP and PAHs, in particular high molecular weight and carcinogenic PAHs.     

Slow eyelid closure as a measure of driver drowsiness and its relationship to performance

Objective: Slow eyelid closure is recognized as an indicator of sleepiness in sleep-deprived individuals, although automated ocular devices are not well validated. This study aimed to determine whether changes in eyelid closure are evident following acute sleep deprivation as assessed by an automated device and how ocular parameters relate to performance after sleep deprivation.

Methods: Twelve healthy professional drivers (45.58 ± 10.93 years) completed 2 randomized sessions: After a normal night of sleep and after 24 h of total sleep deprivation. Slow eye closure (PERCLOS) was measured while drivers performed a simulated driving task.

Results: Following sleep deprivation, drivers displayed significantly more eyelid closure (P < .05), greater variation in lane position (P < .01) and more attentional lapses (P < .05) compared to after normal sleep. PERCLOS was moderately associated with variability in both vigilance performance (r = 0.68, P < .05) and variation in lane position on the driving task (r = 0.61, P < .05).

Conclusions: Automated ocular measurement appears to be an effective means of detecting impairment due to sleep loss in the laboratory.     

Developments in the Framing of Climate Change as a Public Health Issue in US Newspapers

News media are major channels for the transmission of information to the public and deliver news about the latest developments regarding health issues such as climate change. How the media frame such information may enhance public understanding and enable appropriate responses by individuals and communities. This study follows up on previous research examining media portrayals of climate change in US newspapers from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2008. Here, we content analyze 270 news stories on climate change as a public health issue from five US newspapers between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2012. Findings indicate that the total number of articles about climate change declined while emphasis on the public health dimension of climate change increased. The types of generic news frames (i.e., dramatic/substantive) most frequently used did not considerably change across the two time periods, however. To explain this, we discuss ways in which people may assess and spark change in news framing of public issues to better reach and influence a range of audiences.     

In-vehicle Measurement of Ultrafine Particles on Compressed Natural Gas, Conventional Diesel, and Oxidation-catalyst Diesel Heavy-duty Transit Buses

Many metropolitan transit authorities are considering upgrading transit bus fleets to decrease ambient criteria pollutant levels. Advancements in engine and fuel technology have lead to a generation of lower-emission buses in a variety of fuel types. Dynamometer tests show substantial reductions in particulate mass emissions for younger buses (<10 years) over older models, but particle number reduction has not been verified in the research. Recent studies suggest that particle number is a more important factor than particle mass in determining health effects. In-vehicle particle number concentration measurements on conventional diesel, oxidation-catalyst diesel and compressed natural gas transit buses are compared to estimate relative in-vehicle particulate exposures. Two primary consistencies are observed from the data: the CNG buses have average particle count concentrations near the average concentrations for the oxidation-catalyst diesel buses, and the conventional diesel buses have average particle count concentrations approximately three to four times greater than the CNG buses. Particle number concentrations are also noticeably affected by bus idling behavior and ventilation options, such as, window position and air conditioning.     

Can We Manage for Resilience? The Integration of Resilience Thinking into Natural Resource Management in the United States

The concept of resilience is now frequently invoked by natural resource agencies in the US. This reflects growing trends within ecology, conservation biology, and other disciplines acknowledging that social–ecological systems require management approaches recognizing their complexity. In this paper, we examine the concept of resilience and the manner in which some legal and regulatory frameworks governing federal natural resource agencies have difficulty accommodating it. We then use the U.S. Forest Service’s employment of resilience as an illustration of the challenges ahead.